Dwarf Fortress Development

Overview

The long-term goal is to create a fantasy world simulator in which it is possible to take part in a rich history, occupying a variety of roles through the course of several games. Dwarf Fortress has been in development on-and-off since 2002 and consistently since 2006. The game is designed by Tarn and Zach Adams. Fan suggestions are welcome. The suggestion forum can be found here.

It has also proven too time-consuming to maintain all of the notes in a presentable form, so we're sticking with incomplete lists for the foreseeable future. This page doesn't represent everything we'd like to do. It just has some of the things we're thinking about doing sooner rather than later. We'll be adding to it as specific roadmaps are drawn up and we are closer to using them. There is a discussion thread on the forum.

Color Key

Section

Subsection

Future Goal

Partially Done

Done, Next Release

Done, Released

Upcoming Development

Our next major goal is to add creation myth and magic system generation. First we're going to leverage the new dwarf mode world map and do some work with villains that will both enhance the future magic releases and also provide some fun content to sustain everybody over what will likely be a long wait for the first myth release to be finished. We'll also be continuing to work on bugs and small suggestions during this period. The candidate changes for this period are in the first list block below, but we do not intend to do everything there before moving on.

Once we're ready, we'll do myth and magic additions until we reach a satisfactory point (some options below, we won't get to everything). After the magic releases, we'll do a lot of foundational work culminating in starting scenarios for your fortresses. These changes touch upon law, property, status, diplomacy and so on, which will position us for economic work and thief role development, though we haven't committed to a direction beyond the three sections below. We'll be fixing bugs and making smaller changes between major releases.

Pre-Magic Improvement Candidates

Stress balance

Balance positive and negative events

Reflecting on memories of circumstances over time

Return of minor disruptive behavior and arrests

Dwarf army improvements

New missions

Pillaging vs. raids

Razing sites

Demanding tribute

Seizing position-holders as prisoners (see below)

Assassinations of position-holders

Taking over sites and administrators

Getting an off-site holding can jump a fort to barony status

Emphasize holdings on the map

Attracting hill dwarves to become a baron peacefully

Basic hill dwarf / administered site interactions

Request migrants, send fort dwarves out to hills

Shows all your off-site armies, send a squad or messenger to activate them

Ability to trade/demand food in depot or similar place with surrounding dwarves

Development Lists

Below are the things we'll be working on after the ordered list has been handled. The idea for the much-neglected adventure mode is to focus on facilitating some specific roles that should be fun by themselves but especially when taken together. The named roles are for planning purposes only, not for use in the game explicitly. Dwarf mode will see a round of fan-suggested improvements as well as interaction with the upcoming adventure mode villains, raiders, etc. The lists below are unordered.

Adventurer Role: Hero

Your followers

List of followers and ability to look at their information

Being able to take along aggrieved people for a time if you are seeking justice for them

Reputation with entity (see below) allowing for easier followers

Being able to issue orders to attack targets

It should depend, but orders to kill civilians, especially people they know, should result in various negative reactions, possibly including hostility and violence -- your behavior should cause these reactions as well

Being able to issue orders to distract and lead off targets

Being able to issue orders to stay at a site for general purposes (defense, caring for livestock, etc.)

Depending on loyalty, they should not follow unreasonable orders for long (like guarding a random wilderness location)

Expansion of personality system to support more value-judgment-based properties such as bravery vs. cowardice/apathy/recklessness

Better morale failures

Having your own entity name for your group if you have a high enough profile (or before that, but nobody will care)

Capturing people alive and interrogations

Non-lethal fights, AI understanding the difference and the possible escalation to actual combat

Ability to disarm opponents

Ability to hold somebody and immobilize them

Ability to attempt to knock somebody out without killing them

Surrendering in the face of impossible odds, death or death threat coupled with inability to escape or win

Being able to ask people for the specific location of another person or place

Allowing people to lie

Ability to offer quick deaths to mortally wounded people to get them to talk

Being able to force a prisoner to guide you somewhere

Other interrogation stuff

Making sure tracking works to the point that you could follow a released prisoner or other group back to a hideout

Breaking into fortified locations

Having locations alerted, being able to yell for help

Disguises and impersonation through use of entity uniforms

Closed doors and passwords

Sneaking mechanics

Making hiding impossible in wide open areas (at least in adv mode)

Vision arcs for patrolling guards

Gagging people and tying them up

Allowing constructions to burn, use of kindling/hay/etc. where reasonable

Responding properly to personal fire issues (all modes)

Fleeing burning buildings

Fighting fire (all modes)

Designation to set item or tile on fire in dwarf mode

Reputation

Reputation with entity populations, site governments, families and individuals

Increases with heroic acts but can rise out of stranger status just by going to markets etc.

Townspeople fractured among various overlapping allegiances to lords/villains/etc.

People offering free goods to heroes

Being called out by others if you are famous or a stranger in town

Revenge from villains/relatives/superiors of people you have killed or troubled (likely through tracking you down, see Thief role)

Combat flow

Aimed attacks

Random "opportunities" that increase/decrease the efficacy of all aimed/specific moves as combat progresses

Reaction moments and controllable counter-strikes/movement chances

Notion of stance/guard, with varying bonuses/penalties

Ability to jump up on and ride opponents if they are large enough (can happen to you too of course)

Not being able to hit a giant in the head, hitting a dragon in the head as a reaction when it attempts to bite

Notion of overall wrestling position (who is on top of or controlling whom, etc.)

Ability to learn moves, etc. from others with whom you have a high enough reputation

Certain moves may only be available as specific counters, while others might just be regular attacks

Ability to create new moves/styles when highly skilled

Better megabeasts

Variety and randomization within constraints (e.g. various dragons)

Reproduction

Share any intelligent/diplomacy behavior that other hist figs have when appropriate

Adventurer Role: Thief

Valuables and mansions

Towns with large entity populations should have sections/quarters with varying residence quality etc.

Mansions/villas out of the way as well

Many high quality dwarf mode style items in these places

Guards, servants and watch animals/pets associated to the owner wandering the premises

Inns associated to roads and entity pop sprawl where you can stay and get information about the surroundings

Overhearing conversations as you move about town

Selling stolen property

Unscrupulous people in markets and others willing to take stolen goods

Sneaking and disguise portions of the Hero role above are required

Bounties and being hunted

No automatic recognition that you have stolen an item

People should notice when items are missing and raise an alert

Strangers found around town when crime is suspected should be stopped and searched

Your identity/appearance should be remembered for a time if you are seen in an area

If your identity/appearance is associated to an alert over a crime, somebody responsible in the entity should put a bounty on you if appropriate for the entity

You should leave tracking information and it should keep track of the last many people you have talked to

Entity warriors and other adventurers should follow your tracking information

Villains/raiders/etc. from the Hero role should also receive bounties that you can fulfill

Justice

Surrender to those seeking you

You have to follow orders to remain in surrendered state (generally to go to a location or drop your weapon)

When you make a command that follows an order, there should be an option to skip ahead to stages of the journey (such as to a dungeon or halfway through the journey back if you want to attempt to escape from your captor)

If you leave the surrendered state, you should be attacked until you surrender again, though force should not necessarily be lethal immediately

Punishment

Initial beatings

Cutting off some small body part

Branding (requires wounds to support art image from crafts)

Stocks, buried to neck, tied to post

Caned, whipped, hammered

Executions

Imprisonment (until there are ways to escape, might as well retire the character, at which point rescue might be possible by a subsequent character)

Dwarves with similar religious views should formally associate at times

Guilds and sects should be able to make demands for meeting halls, temples, specific furniture or the resources and time to prepare their own furniture, statues of specific gods throughout the fortress, etc.

Dwarves that have grudges or personal altercations should be able to drag their groups into it

Removal of guild dwarves from their professions should result in trouble between the guild and the currently appointed manager/leader

Various benefits to having a well developed guild or sect are under consideration

Military

Army improvements

Make armies/beasts that attack fortress come from actual groups moving on world map

There are complications to be worked out if you can zoom in to battles and control them at the local level, concerning what happens to your fortress

If you can zoom in, situations like being surrounded need to be respected and have the desired results regardless of what area is zoomed in on

Allow villains to attempt to demand tribute from you

Improved sieges

Eliminate remaining edge-of-map exploits

More highly trained attacking soldiers when appropriate

Many trap exploits are handled above by requiring more to produce a trap, things like cage traps should make more sense vs. large creatures etc. (respect strength/ability vs. material, large cages might be separate object)

Coming up with a plan to overcome pathing obstacles to reach fortress innards

Ability to dig (optionally, default on)

Ability to build bridges/ramps

Ability to use grappling hooks/ladders/climb

Learning from mistakes if first attempted assault plan fails badly

For instance, if many siegers are killed, caged, etc. in a given hallway, they shouldn't generally go that way again, even if that means building/climbing/digging

Siege engine improvements depend on state of boats, lifts/moving fortress sections, since these should all use the same framework